"We came here because there's just nowhere else that we could feel like we're in the books," said Michelle Simoneaux, 32, one of thousands of Harry Potter fans who flocked to local bookstores Friday to grab their 759 pages of literary history: the worldwide, midnight release of "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows," the seventh and final installment of J.K. Rowlings' landmark series of books about a boy wizard's coming of age.

"You can't capture this in the aisles of a store," said French Quarter business owner Sandy Blum, who marked the occasion with her son, Noah Hanner, 10. "We are so lucky to have our own Diagon Alley right here in New Orleans."

The French Quarter may have had its particular charms, but it certainly didn't have the only party. Bookstores on the east and west banks of the Mississippi River and the north and south shores of Lake Pontchartrain staged what amounted to a metrowide Potterpalooza, all in anticipation of the magic moment: holding "Deathly Hallows" in their Harry-loving hands.

"I know this sounds crazy, but I didn't sleep that well last night because I was so excited," said Diane Thornhill, 61, a former teacher who went to the Barnes & Noble Metairie decked out as the eccentric Professor Trelawny: multi-colored scarves, handmade pink and green skirt, hoop earrings, red-sequined headband, Potter eyeglasses. "I was sad today when it suddenly hit me: This is going to be the end."

Elizabeth Perry, 25, who got in line early at the Borders Books & Music store down the street, could relate.

"We've been waiting for this day for years," Perry said.

The bookstores rewarded their patience. Borders staged a costume contest, spelling bee, trivia contest and "Great Snape Debate." The Barnes & Nobles stores in Metairie, Mandeville and Harvey offered face-painting and wand-making, picture-taking and tattoos. The Tulane University Bookstore had a late-night magic show and scavenger hunt. Octavia Books Uptown, like the Hotel Monteleone and Faulkner Books in the French Quarter, transformed the surrounding streets into a kind of Diagon Alley theme park.

"It's a chance to be around other Harry Potter dorks," said Mindy Molaison, 22. "I can't think of another book that unites people the way these books do."

The line outside Octavia was more than 100 deep before its doors opened at 9 p.m., prompting more than one eager book-buyer to shout, "Somebody wave a wand!"

Once inside, readers were greeted by a store employee dressed as snide Severus Snape.

"Orderly. Orderly. Silence and order will be observed in the Hall of Hogwarts," he announced in a smooth monotone voice, his eyes as dark and piercing as his hair.

Rowdy teenage girls teased him; one even hugged him. They were too excited by the next Harry Potter plot to be calmed down by the most somber of characters.

"I just want Ron and Hermione to get together and LIVE!" said Newman student Madeleine Ray, 15, who was first in line with her friend Hillary Clark, 15.

In deference to the books' broad demographic appeal, the Garden District Book Shop on Prytania offered jelly-bean cookies for the kids and, as one store employee put it, "something stronger for the people who are not children."

Many revelers treated the event as a family affair. Eugenie James, 26, wore a green and white tie, symbolic of Harry Potter's Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, to Borders with her 5-year-old son, Trevor, in tow.

"We decided after the last book that we'd be among the Harry Potter nerds dressed up and celebrating for this book," James said. "I took the whole weekend off of work for this. It's the end and I had to be a part of it."

Bookstore employees were forced to wrestle with an issue not often faced by peddlers of fine literature: crowd control. The Books-a-Million in Covington, where a line began forming before 7 a.m., shuffled customers into themed "houses" with age-appropriate activities and snacks, such as lightning-bolt cookies.

"I've read the Harry Potter books from the first one, when I was about 7 or 8," said Morgan Allen, 15, of Covington. "This is the last one and I just had to be here."

Garry Byrd and Adrian Cabrera didn't want to risk getting stuck at the end of the line. So, after watching the movie "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" for the third time, the two 19-year-olds pulled into the parking lot of the Metairie Barnes & Noble on Friday at 2 a.m. and plopped their lawn chairs in front of the main doors.

They waited outside, subsisting on fried chicken and water until store management mercifully moved the line inside at 6 p.m. Even after 40 hours without sleep, they said the book was all the stimulant they would need.

"It'll keep us up, man - definitely keep us up," Cabrera said.

Booksellers and book-buyers alike worried that the supply of books wouldn't meet demand. Others were satisfied just to share in the moment.

"The important thing is I am here," said Jane Fiegel, 11, at the Barnes & Noble in Harvey. "A real Harry Potter fan doesn't care if they walk away with the book or not. It's all about celebrating this next chapter."

For most of Friday's Harry die-hards, receiving the book was just the beginning of the celebration.